Dear Dr Catia Cillóniz, recently in Nigeria, some communities rejected vaccinations from Military Medical Service just because they were misinformed and were made to believe the move was motivated politically to bring harms by political enemy. The negative attitude, mentality, lack of information and illiteracy are all anti vaccination and could only bring harm to people and not health care.

It really is unfortunate to hear this information dear Segun Michael Abegunde , thank you very much for sharing it

" Over the last two decades, growing numbers of parents in the industrialized world are choosing not to have their children vaccinated. Trying to explain why this is occurring, public health commentators refer to the activities of an anti-vaccination movement.

The aim of this paper is to review the literature about the anti-vaccination movements and to highlight the knowledge and the skills needed for HCWs to fight against their ideas.

The main theoretical structures of anti-vaccination ideology in the 19th and 20th centuries are: vaccines cause idiopathic illness; opponents against vaccines accused vaccine partisans to be afraid of the “search after truth,” they fear unveiling errors; the vaccination law not only insults every subject of the realm, but also it insults every human being; vaccine immunity is temporary; an alternative healthy lifestyle, personal hygiene and diet stop diseases.

Proponents against vaccination now have additional means to communicate their positions to the general public, the Internet in particular.

Doctors and HCWs constantly have to face parents and patients who search information about vaccination. A lot of these people have previously found data about vaccinations from a lot of sources, such as papers, media or in websites and in these sources most contents come from anti-vaccine movements.

For these reasons doctors and HCWs need to have updated knowledge about the vaccinations and to know the contents proposed by vaccine sceptics.

Educating the general public cannot be fully effective unless there is a corresponding provision, enthusiasm and commitment by trained HCWs"( Tafuri, S., Gallone, M. S., Cappelli, M. G., Martinelli, D., Prato, R., & Germinario, C. (2014). Addressing the anti-vaccination movement and the role of HCWs. Vaccine, 32(38), 4860-4865).

Poland, G. A., & Jacobson, R. M. (2011). The age-old struggle against the antivaccinationists. New England Journal of Medicine, 364(2), 97-99.

Dube, E., Vivion, M., & MacDonald, N. E. (2015). Vaccine hesitancy, vaccine refusal and the anti-vaccine movement: influence, impact and implications. Expert review of vaccines, 14(1), 99-117.

Wolfe, R. M., & Sharp, L. K. (2002). Anti-vaccinationists past and present. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 325(7361), 430.

Vaccines are of different types. Broadly:

1. Killed vaccines 2. Live attenuated vaccines.

Other type of vaccines, as Hepatitis B (viral surface antigen), Tetanus (Toxoid) etc. are also there.

The killed vaccines are safe, but can induce short term protection. The live vaccines can induce long term protection.

Reasons for failure of vaccines are mainly mutation of the strain of the organism from the strain used for vaccine production.

Every living entity in the world are struggling for existence.

We are preparing antibiotics to kill bacteria and use vaccines for protection from infection of bacteria and virus as a part of our struggle.

The bacteria are developing resistance genes against antibiotics and all organisms are changing there genotype as a part of their struggle for their existence against human intervention on their growth and multiplication.

It is a war, and we have to fight it continuously for our existence in this globe.

Anti antibiotic or anti vaccination campaign can only bring disasters for human civilization.

Thanks.

agree with@ Segun Michael Abegunde

regards

Science has proved that vaccination reduces infection by the organisms against which an individual is vaccinated. These anti vaccination campaigners must stop taking us back in time

Anti-vaccination case also happens in Punjab, India, 2018. I think this movement was due to political issues and People didn't rely on vaccinations given by some organizations.

By developing strong trust on authorized organizations can stop this movement.

The history of this particular issue regarding vaccination(and there are many others regarding other vaccines,as we know) is very clear.

One fraudulent paper,widely covered before being exposed,leading to a sustained drop in vaccination,and the problem is that when those opposed to a treatment gain traction via social media,the damage done is virtually impossible to undo.

The vehemence with which the arguments against treatments are put is such that the false doctrines overwhelm the truth in many cases,and this is a good example.

How to undo it is much more difficult......we can publish work and we can advertise the findings,but overcoming the impact of social media,especially when cleverly employed,is an uphill battle,as we are seen as the "establishment",with a vested interest in promoting therapies.

What we need is testimony from real,ordinary people,willing to stand up and say they were wrong in denying their children vaccinations.

As above,trust and also getting the social platforms on board would be key to this.

I think yes. The recent recurrence of measles in United Kingdom and other European countries is the result of anti-vaccination movement. In the first six months of 2018, more than 41,000 children and adults contracted measles across the Europe.

The proliferation of social networking sites is accompanied by a rapid exchange of undocumented information, with the creation of a layer of superficial culture, with the exchange of contradictory data, without scientific evidence

Therefore, the need for scientific sites for all special disciplines, in all languages, to convey the scientific facts

I agree with the Dr. Arvind's comment: "Yes, i think. The recent recurrence of measles in United Kingdom and other European countries is the result of anti-vaccination movement. In the first six months of 2018, more than 41,000 children and adults contracted measles across the Europe".

Thanks for all your comments

Foremost, I appreciate the concern of Catia Cilloniz. The propaganda of anti-vaccination across the globe is need to be addressed. Personally, I feel the recent upraise in such voices is a combination of misinformation, lack of awareness, lack of belief/trust in political system or policy makers and little extent to religious or social taboos. I firmly believe that scientific community belonging to certain region or country alone cannot solve this issue. It has to be a global effort. Further, I belief both scientific persons or communities must work with teachers or academicians to inculcate the importance of vaccination. Our ability to travel around the world within 48-72 hours provide a vital information that "disease also spread at the same speed". Hence, our (scientific and academician) efforts must be synchronized to come over such obstacles so that all of us can move one step further. At present, I feel having these kinds of discussion among scientific scholars among themselves and also in social forums may provide sufficient information to the teacher or academicians. The primary reason to select these two set of community is generally people believe these communities and have trust on these people due to their neutrality in political scenario and real concern on public issue.

It is unfortunate that someone on whatever’s position is going against vaccination. Typical case the recent Minnesota measles outbreak where every child has a possibility to be vaccinated. The only way to deal against such anti vaccine campaigns is to eliminate diseases like measles. Here in Somalia such a discussion is getting fast despite difficulties

Education of parents, but also of health workers.

In India, Pulse Polio program is continued from 1995!

Still today, a section of people opposed it in such a way that a large number of children of particular community practically did not get even a single dose in last 23 years!

Polio should be eradicated from India.

But how?

I agree with Nihada Ahmetovic. Educating parents and health workers is major key to unlock anti vaccination agenda. Today's world or present century gives top priority for individuals thoughts and interest when compared with previous centuries. Hence, it is ideal to use such platform to come over social hurdle. Education can alter one individual thought and convert or expand it at community level. The digital technologies must be utilized properly. I think the best way is to have continuous discussion like this in social platforms. Certainly, it will attract more and more people

Now the real problem is what to do, when to do and how to do. I think, we should talk or discuss about how it can be achieved. Personally, I have several suggestions to all of us. I hope everybody will give their inputs, suggestions to move it next level. We can take some baby steps (I.e individual efforts). If we look at our own history we can understand similar pattern of growth while major reformations. All noble efforts for the benevolence of human or society begin from single individual efforts, often isolated events later gathered into a collective support which resulted in a greater leap forward. I think we can use the same formula for every problems remains in the society.

As a scientific person, we should talk about these issues with our neighbour, friends, relatives etc (or whenever, wherever possible) I.e out of scientific community . Certainly, it will create an impact in the society. Further, we should take some efforts (active) while national vaccine campaign schedule or in some other days in our residing area or even in locations with higher anti-vaccination propaganda. I personally feel people believe scientist or researchers than anybody else in the society. People may not express, but they know that the scientific community only address present and future problems without personal agenda.  Some non-believer in Science may claim that science itself bad or science is also under the roof of politics… We need to admit the fact and we need to convince such people through patience and proper explanation. Mere statistical presentation of data on vaccination does not provide major help to change people decisions. We should listen to the voices of anti-vaccination propaganda then only we can take appropriate counter measures. Let us listen their voices and then convince them.    

We can fill an empty cup only. Hence, it is better to focus on academic institutions which participate in filling of individual thoughts to greater extent. Schools and colleges with student journals, in year books, local discussion can give priority for the importance of vaccination. Every month must begin or end with some form of activity to support and spread awareness for vaccination. We can get help from peoples working in the field of psychology so that these information can be effectively communicated at appropriate intervals among the kids, teenagers and adults. Long term benefits can be obtained through education in schools, colleges and universities only. We can help teachers to conduct such activities, preparation of cartoons, slogans etc. If we focus on academic sector, certainly the proportion of problem will be reduce significantly within a decade.

Nothing will happen in overnight to have a sustainable benefit to the society. Each and everybody read news paper, listen some local channels, national channels, internet and even radio across the world. It means everybody wants to know what is happening at the local, state, national and global level across the nation. We can use such platforms and technologies to support vaccination. Individually, we can try to flash some slogans which support vaccination and problems in anti-vaccination. Most of us maintain certain blogs, social media like FB, tweets etc. All of us can put a message once in a week or month. If several thousand people participate every time certainly the entire year will be filled with such good messages, cartoons and information.

I am not sure whether the following suggestion work or not. If policy makers suggest each and every social media or a policy that it should spend couple of minutes per week for vaccination, then it is sufficient to convey the message effectively. Social workers, health care supporters, NGOs can conduct some rallies for the need, importance and achievement of vaccination. We may need a body or team or an organization to conduct such noble efforts to greater extent.  

I know that this is an old discussion, but it is a topic in which I have a great deal of interest. While the anti-vax movement is problematic, it is difficult to say whether it is the only source, or even the primary source of these recent outbreaks. It may very well be. However, it is not proper medical science to assign blame without proper testing.

Blaming the anti-vax movement is the "easy way out." It doesn't require people to consider the more concerning option: that the associated vaccines are failing and that it is this vaccine failure that is resulting in outbreaks. My focus isn't on Measles. It's on Whooping Cough, but much of the same arguments apply: Preprint Studying the Efficacy and Perception of Whooping Cough Vaccines